Price Monitoring Group: April price analysis shows little change

April 2019 data - The Price Monitoring Group actively monitors 26 service providers from across the country. This comprises 19 individual companies with some firms operating in more than one area.

As the Group has previously remarked, the pricing landscape for the collection of residential household waste is complex. No single or uniform price arrangement across all of the service providers has emerged, although there continues to be one dominant pricing plan in particular; Service Charge including a Weight Allowance Plus Per KG Charge for Excess Above Allowance.

Complex Pricing Packages

A significant proportion of waste collection companies offer multiple waste collection packages to their customers. As a result of this, users have a choice of waste collection packages to choose from which adds to the total number of packages that are actively monitored.

The total number of waste collection packages is 51, this is unchanged from the previous month (a full breakdown of all service offers is included with this report).

During the April mystery calling campaign, there was no change in the total number of price packages compared to the previous month which stands at 8. Examples of price packages include: Service charge plus per kg weight charge; E-tag and other options (the full list of all pricing models is incorporated with this report under the data analysis).

Where prices did change

Across the 51 price plans, during the month of April, there was more price movement activity than has been the case in previous months. However, in broad terms, the pricing activity was more of a tweaking nature than substantive with the majority of charges and weight limits unchanged.

The April price variations are as follows:

1. Service Provider D– Increased their charge per KG waste from €0.19 to €0.22 Service Charge plus per KG Weight Charge category.

3. Service Provider J– Service charge increased from €16.50 to €20.95. (Service charge (including weight allowance) plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance). It also increased the weight allowance for its waste bin from 32KG to 42KG.

4. Service Provider K– Service charge increased from €25.00 to €26.67. (Service charge (including weight allowance) plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance). It should be noted this service provider has alternated between those two prices across a number of series reports.

5. Company M – It decreased its registration / rental charge from €65 to €30 (E-tag). There were no other changes to the waste, recycling or compost charges noted for this provider.

Generally, the provision of price information was satisfactory; staff employed by waste collection firms were generally aware of the pricing its company promoted and offered to users. However, in a minority of cases, pricing calculations and websites appear opaque resulting in some staff unable to confirm final price / costs at the user end. The Price Monitoring Group is keen that pricing displayed on company websites and communicated by staff is clear, up-to-date and accurate in order for users to make informed price comparisons across service providers licensed to operate in their area. It is also important that all waste collection firms make available to users accurate and up-to-date records of collections, including date, weight and cost of services provided.

Why information is anonymised

The purpose of the Price Monitoring Group is to establish and track whether the prices householders pay for the collection of household waste fluctuates and if so, by how much. It does this by using a mystery-shopping approach to a proportion of licensed waste collection firms. However, since price monitoring is not carried out on a whole-of-market basis, it is not in a position to publish names of those firms that are actively monitored.

Composition of the PMG

The group comprises representatives from:

- Waste Policy & Resource Efficiency Division

- An economist from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment,

Please note this email has been put in place to facilitate the submission of relevant price information to the Group. The Group will consider all submission that can help inform it in respect to prices residential users pay for the collection of residential waste. Unfortunately, the Group is not in a position to respond to individual submissions at this time.

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